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Non-family experience and receipt of personal care in Nepal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2012

JENNIFER YARGER  and
SARAH R. BRAUNER-OTTO
JENNIFER YARGER*
Affiliation:
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
SARAH R. BRAUNER-OTTO
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Jennifer Yarger, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA. E-mail: jennifer.yarger@ucsf.edu
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Abstract

Scholars and policy makers have expressed concern that social and economic changes occurring throughout Asia are threatening the wellbeing of older adults by undercutting their systems of family support. Using a sample of 1,654 men and women aged 45 and above from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, we evaluated the relationship between individuals' non-family experiences, such as education, travel and non-family living, and their likelihood of receiving personal care in older adulthood. Overall, we found that among individuals in poor health, those who had received more education, travelled to the capital city, or lived away from their families were less likely to have received personal care in the previous two weeks than adults who had not had these experiences. Our findings provide evidence that although familial connections remain strong in Nepal, experiences in new non-family social contexts are tied to lower levels of care receipt.

Keywords

ageingcare-givingfamilyNepalsocial trends/social changeintergenerational relations
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 106 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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